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Day 1 of 26 to 27 went pretty well, and was definitely interesting! Although I don’t necessarily believe that counting calories/macros are 100% needed, I’m going to post all meals eaten over the next 26 days, as well as the calorie counts and macro nutrients (carbohydrates, fat and protein). I usually track on a daily basis, but I’m posting them for accountability and to be able to better reflect at the end of the challenge.

Breakfast was eaten around 10:30, and was really simple. I waited too long to eat, and was starving! I had a bunch of mini bell peppers we picked up at Sam’s Club over the weekend, along with a cottage cheese cup, a few water crackers and a couple of Morningstar veggie sausage links. I love the Morningstar maple sausage patties, but the links just didn’t do it for me – the texture was completely off! I ate everything but one link, along with 4 cups of water. Breakfast came out to 238 calories, 32g of carbs, 5g of fat and 17g of protein.

I’m not sure if it was too light or I waited to long to eat, but breakfast didn’t hold me over at all! At 12:15, I had a double chocolate dream VitaTop, vanilla Greek yogurt, raspberry-pomegranate preserves and sprinkled with a dash of ground flax and slivered almonds. Post-photo, everything was mixed together and immediately consumed. Snack 1 was 258 calories, 47g of carbohydrates, 4g of fat and 16g of protein.

Several loads of laundry later, I realized that it was time for lunch. At 3, I helped Ev pan-sear some cornmeal-crusted Gardein fillets, and wrapped them in whole grain tortillas with a sprinkling of vintage cheddar and some spicy brown mustard. Served with a few Doritos on the side, I took a bite and had my second food fail of the day. There was just something…off….about the taste. Gardein as a whole just isn’t for me, I think, which is a shame. Super high in protein, low in carbs and fat, but I’ve only found one of their products that I can stomach. By 3:30, I was sitting down to another wrap, this one filled with refried jalapeno-black beans, a sprinkling of vintage white cheddar and some raw asparagus on a whole-grain tortilla. Much better! Lunch (including the sample of the Gardein wrap) was 265 calories, 31g of carbs, 10g of fat, and 18g of protein.

After what felt like a ton of delays, we were finally heading down the road for our night out on the town. While E refueled my car, I refueled my body with a tea I received as a (free) sample this morning – orange, passion fruit and jasmine green tea from Lipton. I usually dislike green tea, but this was awesome, tasted like Froot Loops, and brought me 3 glasses closer to my daily water goal. Win all around!

We made really good time on the drive, so we had dinner around 6:30 at one of our favourites – Tricky Fish. They use mostly free-range, organic and local ingredients, and their tofu tacos are killer. I was craving a sandwich, and ordered the free-range chicken breast sandwich with salad as my side.

Killer! The bun was soft and bready, the chicken perfectly cooked, and the veggies were so fresh. I topped my sandwich with spicy mustard and a little cocktail sauce, dressed the salad with lemon juice, malt vinegar, chipotle Tabasco sauce and a bit of Newman’s Own ranch dressing to cut the heat. Best meal of the day, hands down, by far. I also had 2 more glasses of water at the restaurant. Dinner was a total of 493 calories, 47g of carbs, 15g of fat and 39g of protein.

We had a little time to kill, so E played photographer, and we had an impromptu photo shoot. Professional model, right here!

We headed down to the Clay Center, and got ready to see David Copperfield. E was a professional magician in his early years, and Copperfield is one of his idols. It was my first time, and E’s 7th at least! We had amazing seats (3rd row, center), and it was absolutely incredible. Copperfield still has it, and is hysterical – gotta love a guy that can make you laugh. The highlight was sitting behind Gov. Joe Manchin and his family – I met them during the GMA remote at the Kitchen, and have an official photograph of me crying on his shoulder. I know how to keep my cool, apparently! Thankfully, no tears were shed last night, much to E’s relief.

We came home a little late, but I decided to whip up a quick snack since we were both pretty hungry. I ordered a bunch of different protein powder samples a few weeks ago, and decided to try one out. I made up a quick shake, using nonfat milk, ice, cinnamon and BSN Lean Dessert Fresh Cinnamon Roll protein powder. After seeing it on Janetha’s blog, I’ve been dying to try it. It took a couple of sips to get used to, but it’s actually really good! The whey aftertaste is minimal, and it has a good texture without being gritty. Snack #2’s totals were 204 calories, 20g of carbs, 3g of fat and 24g of protein.

Why do I look so nefarious?!?!

The daily totals were 1458 calories, 176g of carbohydrates, 37g of fat and 114g of protein, or a ratio 47.3%, 22.1%, 30.6%. Not bad at all! Feeling really satisfied and hydrated, thanks to the 9 glasses of water I drank. Onto day 2!

So, my last post was a little confusing, but completely on purpose. Wait, that doesn’t make a ton of sense in itself. But…oh, never mind. A couple of weeks ago, I signed up to be a volunteer for a new community kitchen that opened in town. They have an amazing collection of cookbooks, give free lessons 4 times a day, 5 days a week, and use all organic produce and ingredients.

The Kitchen’s goal for this week is to have 1,000 (or 2% of) people in Huntington cooking, and so a cook-a-thon was thrown! From 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., there was a cooking class held every 30 minutes, taught by Jamie, for free. They made a beef and scallion stir-fry with noodles, and it smelled amazing – going outside was torture!

We had a great turn-out; the firefighters and the media came out, and by 3 p.m., we’d had 250 people cook. Considering 20-30 people were cooking at one time, that’s crazy!

So, did I meet him?

YES!

He’s super-sweet, and at one point, he even called out to me from the stage, and was all, “darling, are you okay? we having fun?”. Oh yeah, we totally bonded. I’m bummed I wasn’t able to get a picture with him, but he was running around like a madman, and I hated the thought of bugging him like the crazy foodie fangirl that I am. I did get the next best thing, though.

Yup, totally posing with his shirt. Love the fact that I looked thrilled beyond belief. For a shirt. I’m such a weirdo!

The show was amazing. The puppets were incredible (and I hate puppets!), the songs were amazing, and it was just darn plain funny. I would definitely recommend it, but not to young children, anyone uptight, or those who have no sense of humor.

Now for the food!

9:15 a.m. Kashi GoLean and Honey Sunshine, with a teeny banana on its last legs, pecans and nonfat milk

12:25 p.m. Clif Mountain Mojo Trail Mix bar – sheer heaven!

12:50 p.m. ‘Bucks’ Grande Passion Tea with 1 Splenda

4:35 p.m. Worst lunch ever! Benny’s Hickory Chicken sandwich, no bacon and no Swiss and a garden salad with no cheese and ginger dressing on the side. Seriously disappointing – too much bbq sauce, stale bread, off salad dressing, and obviously cheese. Ugh. I ate all the veggies, 1 tsp of dressing, all the chicken (with half the sauce wiped off) and half the bun. Everything else got tossed, although I able to salvage the cheese for E’s next lunch, which was about 1/4 cup’s worth.

Now some girls are all about little blue boxes, but for me, my heart melts for a certain medium red one.

Oh yeah. The fastest way to my heart is chocolate-covered fruit, and to me, Edible Arrangements is king. The best part? Thanks to Facebook, it was free. Definitely had to sample to make sure it was up to par.

5:20 p.m. Granny Smith covered with dark chocolate. I was a good wife, and split it with E.

6:30 p.m. Cedarlane LF chicken burrito. I’ve never had a Cederlane product that I didn’t like, and this was no exception. A little spicy, a lot of chicken. Almost too much chicken, but can there ever be too much? This guy was small but filling, especially with Blue Smoke salsa and shredded mozz on top.

I’m not sure if it was that we left the blinds open or the feather pillows, but I couldn’t sleep worth a damn on Friday night, and woke up bright and early Saturday morning. With E still fast asleep and breakfast not being available for another 3 hours, I headed down to the hotel gym for an early morning swim. I was shocked at how small the pool was! At most, it was 15×10, with the deep end being 5 ft. I swam a few laps, but after 20 minutes I was totally bored, and without being able to tread or do pull-ups, I headed back up to our room.

Post-“workout” snack” – 1/2 each of a Bartlett pear and a gala apple, plus some Barney Butter. E wanted to eat the pear without cutting it, so I had to wait for him to finishing munching on his half before he’d cut up mine – silly boy!

I got a couple of packets of Barney Butter right before we headed out of town, so this was the perfect time to give it a try!

pros:-very smooth consistency-made in a completely peanut-free factory-kosher-low in sodium and sugar-comes in both jars and single-serving packets-roasted peanut flavor

cons:-hard to find in brick-and-mortar stores-unlike MaraNatha which contains only almonds, Barney Butter also contains evaporated cane juice, palm fruit oil and sea salt. While the additives are natural, I don’t know that they’re necessary.-very similar consistency and mouth feel to peanut butter, which is evidenced by E, Mr. PB himself, liking Barney Butter when he’s never like any other nut butter before. Great if you love PB, not so much when you don’t.

I’d definitely buy the single-serve packets because they’re super-portable and great for traveling, but when it comes to jars, I’m sticking with my MaraNatha – sorry, Barney Butter!

Once we were finally ready, we headed out for breakfast at ZenCha. A little under a mile away from the hotel, we decided to walk it, and I’m glad we did. The Short North is one of our favorite neighborhoods, and it was really great to be able to stroll by on such a beautiful day. As we were walking, I couldn’t but think how less than 6 months ago, there were days when it was a struggle to walk half as far – we’ve come a long way!

Check out the greatest advertisement ever – given more time, we would’ve totally hit it up for kicks!

ZenCha is what tea heaven must be like – with 120 or so varieties from all over the world, and everything from Bubble Tea to French tea lattes, you just can’t go wrong! E picked a sampler of 3 – silver tip white tea, Earl Grey, and a Pu-erh which is an aged and fermented black tea. E loved them all, and got somewhere between 7 and 9 cups of tea out of the mix, which definitely jazzed him up.

I’m a simple gal, and had an iced Cinnamon Mint Chai. Creamy, refreshing and soothing, this was the perfect pick. I really loved that they added the ice cubes to the filter inside the pot, so not only was this constantly cool, but the tea wasn’t watered down a single bit.

With so many great dishes to choose from, we decided to share two, and thankfully we were on the same wavelength!

Our first pick was the Arabian Night, a delicately crisp yet fluffy cardamom-scented waffle. With dates baked right in and topped with sliced almonds, orange supremes, a little creme fraiche and served with an orange-cardamom syrup, these were some serious waffles! Not too sweet and definitely satisfying, these were spot-on.

Check out the cross-shot of waffle goodness!

For our second choice, we went savory with a Vegetable Okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake/omelet hybrid filled with veggies like shitake mushrooms and crispy napa cabbage, and topped with Kewpie mayo and a mysterious sauce similar to a hoisin. This was our time to try okonomiyaki, and it will definitely not be our last! I can just imagine how great the chicken and seafood varieties are.

We decided to take our time coming back, and checked out a few of the little shops lining the street. We also took a side trip to one of our favorite spots, North Market, where E convinced me to try some Morbier, a super-stinky cheese he’s been wanting for years. Surprisingly delicious, the Morbier turned out to be much milder than it smells, with a nice nuttiness. I shared in, and ate about 1 1/2 oz. of the cheese with a little more than half of a wholemeal roll.

We headed back to the convention for a few hours, and picked up a small lunch since we weren’t eating dinner for a while. I had another packet of salmon and avocado sushi.

I also had a few of these teeny hash browns, were were really fresh and crisp. Yum!

Later on, I’ll be posting our experience at dinner, and don’t forget to vote for me here. Also, Eating Bird Food is having a sparkling giveaway which you need to check it out, so head on over!

I’m proud to say I reached my goals for the day, which means no cheddar biscuits for me! I also resisted taking nibbles off of anyone else, which is quite a feat between 2 restaurants and 11 people. I almost took a taste of E’s pasta tonight, but caught myself, and gave our server my cutlery instead. After all, no cutlery, no nibbles!

We ate lunch at Red Lobster, and it was pretty good. Wood-grilled Rainbow Trout, steamed unseasoned broccoli and a baked tater with picodegallo. The potato came smothered in salt, so it took me a few minutes to brush it all off. There was at least 2 tablespoons poured on top of it, and for the life of me, I can’t understand who’d want to eat that. With unsweet tea, lunch came out to 456 calories.

We headed straight from lunch to the School of Nursing reception – tons of food and tons of people. Normally, I’d take the opportunity to do a ton of grazing, but I resisted. I had my eye on a giant piece of carrot cake – thankfully, the university provided an awesome tea bar, so I had a Bigelow Vanilla Chai with nondairy creamer instead. The nutmeg, cardamom and other spices totally filled the cap, and at 15 calories was such a better choice! I loved the disposable mugs they had – not environmentally-friendly, but super cute.

The proud graduate! Even though he’s not officially done until mid-August, we’re so proud of him.The ceremony took forever, or at least felt that way. By the time we were seated at Outback for dinner, it’d been 6 or 7 hours since lunch, and I was starving. My original plan was to bring some carrots for during the commencement, but I completely forgot! After a sip of E’s Yuengling and my mother-in-law’s PinotGrigio, I settled for the best drink of all, a giant bottle of San Pellegrino with lemon. I nursed this all night, and it hit the spot – having the wine glass was just part of the effect.

I had a teensy slice of bread (probably 1/20th of the loaf), and decided on my starter. I could’ve totally gone for a bite (or 5) of this:But instead, I chose this!House salad, no cheese, with Tangy Tomato dressing on the side. I ate everything other than one crouton that mysteriously ended up in E’s mouth, and 4 or 5 fork dips of the dressing. I feel like I always get the same thing whenever I go out to eat: chicken or fish, baked potato, steamed veg. It’s been getting kind of boring, so I decided to mix it up! Grilled chicken and shrimp with grilled veggies, grilled pineapple and a huge sweet potato with cinnamon. Other than half the potato, everything ended up in my belly! Really good and a nice change, the night out ended at 520 calories.

I had a carrot when we got back to our room, which brings the daily total to 1465 calories. I’m actually really excited and proud, because I dodged some major personal landmines. Red Lobster and Outback are both well-known to be calorie-busters, and buffet service and I are the best of friends. Today could’ve been a total nightmare, and it was completely within range! It was a great test, and has given me that much more confidence. I know I can do this!

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